And Action!

Get ready for the Santa Fe Independent Film Festival

It’s 2013, so if my math is correct, this is the fifth annual Santa Fe Independent Film Festival. Pretty cool. Less cool is its abbreviation, SFIFF, which isn’t even a proper acronym.

But that’s the only gripe you’re going to see here, and really, that’s not even a gripe.

Film festivals are the greatest—and I don’t just write that because I’m a film critic. Film festivals offer up possibilities, and that’s one of the things I want when I see a movie: The possibility to laugh, to cry, to barf, to be challenged, to be entertained.

But the most significant possibility at any film festival is the possibility that the movie you’re watching will never play anywhere else ever again. And that’s pretty cool.

Some movies never get past one film festival appearance, not because they’re good or bad, but because the film business is fickle, money to buy and release a movie is hard to come by, and sometimes, despite the best efforts of its makers, some movies just screen once and it’s over.

That’s a more-downer-than-I-thought-it-would-be way of saying: Go. Attend. Enjoy. Watch lots of movies. And maybe start with these, which look truly fascinating:

12 O’ Clock Boys:This documentary follows a boy named Pug as he falls in with a group of dirt bike riders in Baltimore. You know dirt bikes: Loud, lightweight and deadly. You watch YouTube clips of dirt bikes just to see someone wipe out. And in what other movie will you hear this heartbreaking line? “One person trying to raise a motherfucker like [Pug]? That’s a lot.”

Delivery: Who says the found footage horror craze is over? A young couple documents its first pregnancy for TV, but then things go wrong. Anything that involves children and horror has the possibility of being great (Rosemary’s Baby) or terrible (Godsend). I’m betting on the former for this one.

There is No God & We All Die Alone: This short is worth seeing based solely on its title.

Pastriology: There have been documentaries that follow hunger (A Place at the Table) and overeating (Super Size Me). Pastriology visits both, and more, in locations around the world.

Pig Death Machine: Much like There is No God & We All Die Alone, how could you miss a movie called Pig Death Machine? Filmmakers Jon Moritsugu and Amy Davis are locals, and if you’ve seen any of their previous work, you know there’s nothing quite like it out there.

John Waters Live: This Filthy World: First watch the movie, then see Waters receive the 2013 American Filmmaker Award. There will also be a short Q&A and a book signing. Don’t be the jackass who asks whether Divine really ate dog shit.